Improving Enterprises has an annual company retreat and more than 80 percent of its employees travel to Las Vegas for team building activities. Highlights include bull riding, jumping off the Stratosphere and an "Amazing Race" in which teams of 10 race for eight hours across Las Vegas to solve puzzles and get to know each other.

By CHERYL HALL

Staff Writer

If Dan Basso, CEO of Systemware Inc., had known that his HR department wanted to enter our first Top 100 contest five years ago, he might have warned against it.

We were, after all, in the midst of a severe recession.

“My guess is that we entered because we are very proud of what we have built and wanted to get our story out,” Basso says. “Each of us wishes American business would embrace our philosophy of putting the employee before the company, treating everyone with respect, having fun together, sharing in our mutual success and truly living the principle that customer relationships are vital to success.”

Our annual competition draws hundreds of companies with similar values. It’s what we at The Dallas Morning News find so rewarding and why we put so much effort into the Top 100 Places to Work.

But we have special regard for Systemware and 15 other companies that entered our first contest in 2009 and have made the Top 100 list every year since.

So what possessed them to jump into untested waters with us?

They believed they had something to show off and wanted to see if they were right.

“Even though there were turbulent financial times in the world,” says John Tolleson, CEO of Tolleson Wealth Management, “we thought it would be a good way to make sure what we felt we had was indeed our employees’ reality.”

Brint Ryan, CEO of Ryan LLC, wanted a sanity meter.

“We had already done one crazy thing when the recession hit in late 2008,” he says. “We implemented a flexible, work-anywhere-anytime environment. So why not go out on a limb and enter a contest that might confirm we were nuts?

“We were hungry for their feedback, and this was a great way to get it.”

“Difficult times, more often than not, bring out the best in people and can make organizations stronger, more durable,” says Rick Merrill, president and CEO of Cook Children’s Health Care System. “Challenges are a given in life, but if we allow ourselves to be consumed by them, we will most certainly miss golden opportunities — like this one.”

“It’s really an attitude survey of how we’re doing as leaders and as co-workers,” says Tait Cruse, managing partner of Northwestern Mutual-Dallas. “The incredible feedback from the questions the employees answer — that’s even broken down by district offices — helps give me an idea of the pulse of the organization, what others are thinking.”

Why do companies keep coming back? Winning this recognition is a morale builder for management and employees.

“People stay here because they are happy,” says Tom Zatina, president of McLane Foodservice. “It is a way to celebrate what we already know: that this is a great place to work. In fact, the majority of the employees that leave our Carrollton office ask to come back.”

The seal of employee approval has been

great for recruitment, says Larry Autrey, managing partner of Whitley Penn, especially when trying to lure talent from out of state or away from competitors.

“Our customers appreciate that we do everything we can to provide consistency for them by retaining our employees,” he says. “As a result, we have clients that actually choose our firm because of this commitment.”

Our 16 five-time winners have no intention of missing the cut in Year 6. What will they do to keep the momentum rolling?

“I know this sounds trite,” says James Frary, president of AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group, “but we’ll keep doing what we always have: act in the best interests of our associates and our customers.

“So that means rolling out a new associate assistance fund. It means creating a structure for

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more professional movement between the different parts of our business. It means a greater commitment to support our associates’ personal dedication to charitable causes.”

“We’re in it for the long haul,” says Kent Lowder, president of Mustang Technology Group. “We’ll use the year-over-year data to identify areas where we can get better. We know we have to continually improve to stay in the hunt.”

“We’ll figure out what we need to do next to make this the greatest place our employees have ever worked,” Ryan says. “We have a few surprises up our sleeves!” ■